Two BlackBerry Executives Got So Drunk, They Grounded a Jet to China

To say it had not been a great fourth-quarter for Research in Motion, the Canada-based makers of BlackBerry, would be putting it mildly. There was that embarrassing North American outage, flatlining sales of their new smartphones amid steady growth for competitors, and a stock that has depreciated 77 percent since February of this year. What these guys could really use right about now is some positive publicity. Hahahahahahaha! Sorry.

Two of their executives — George Campbell, 45, of Conestogo, Ontario, and Paul Alexander Wilson, 38, of Kitchener, Ontario — boarded an Air Canada flight in Toronto on Monday that was headed directly to Beijing. In the air, the men then proceeding to get extremely drunk and rowdy, and "weren't listening to any direction that the flight crew was giving them." The plane had traveled north of Alaska when the pilots decided to turn the plane around — a Boeing 777, with 331 people on board — and land in Vancouver.

The men were "forcibly restrained" by crew, and RCMP officers were waiting to arrest them at the airport. Each was give a suspended sentence and one year's probation. They were ordered to pay Air Canada $35,878 each, and "barred from having any contact with Air Canada crews or flying that carrier during the probation period."

RIM's statement:

"Based on the limited information available at this time, RIM has suspended the individuals involved pending further investigation."

Well, sounds like there's a couple of openings at RIM! What are you waiting for? Get cracking! [Toronto Star, Screengrab via rim.com]